Oakland’s first sustainable sushi restaurant opens next month

A boat pulls out from Berkeley Marina. Some of Torpedo Sushi’s fish will be brought in directly from this port. Photo by James Reddick.

The Oakland restaurant scene is finally taking a modest step towards catching up with San Francisco in the sustainable sushi business. Next month, Boston-area transplant Luis Sanchez will be opening a new locally sourced Uptown restaurant called Torpedo Sushi, the first sushi bar in the city to prioritize serving fish that has been sustainably sourced. (San Francisco’s Tataki became the first entirely sustainable sushi restaurant in North America in 2008.)

Sanchez is aiming to get 80 percent of his fish from day boats off the northern coast of California and to follow the recommendations of the Monterrey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch List. “When you come to the Bay Area you learn a lot about being responsible,” he says. “It inspires you to push your quality and to think about your impact.”